1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the detection of unwanted gases within a particular environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Early knowledge of leakage of certain products is often desired in order to take steps to prevent further leakage of or damage by these products. Petroleum product seepages into the earth, for example, have damaged underground telephone cables. In particular, vapors from such products are known to penetrate, over a period of several months, jacketed telephone cables to the extent that the cables must be replaced. This, of course, involves undesired service outages and maintenance costs. Similar problems exist in other fields -- as, for example, the loss of refrigerant gases which may damage food under refrigeration.
The prior art discloses various apparatus for detecting unwanted gases. To the best of applicant's knowledge, these apparatus detect such gases at locations defined by openings associated with the apparatus. As such apparatus must provide an opening for each location to be monitored, their initial cost and maintenance cost become prohibitive when the environment to be monitored is extensive and the locations to be monitored are relatively close together. Such apparatus becomes totally impractical, for example, when it is desired to monitor the environment surrounding the entire length of an underground cable segment as distinguished from monitoring at discrete locations within the environment.